Portion Control

Eating from small red dishes could help curb mindless consumption, two reports in the journal Appetite suggest. In a study of 88 volunteers who snacked on M&M's while watching TV, those who received a large container ate 199 calories more than others who got a small container, though both groups had the same amount of candy. People may perceive the portion size to be smaller when served on a large plate, says lead author David Marchiori, who conducted this research as a graduate student at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium. In a separate study involving 130 participants, people ate fewer pretzels from red plates compared with blue and white plates, and drank less soda from red-labeled versus blue-labeled cups. "Red is used to signal danger, prohibition, and the need for vigilance," explains lead author Oliver Genschow, a researcher at the University of Basel in Switzerland.